Web of Lies: Trueborn Heirs Series Book 2

by Nyna Queen

  The old man had told them that he would need a couple of hours of rest before he could teleport them back, which was just fine; they would likely need some time for this venture as well.

  Alex averted her gaze and faced forward again. “My ex is none of your business. Rachel should stop raking over old coals.”

  Darken’s jaw clenched and his fingers, which he had freed from their gloves again because of the heat up here, curled at his sides, giving off flashes of gold. “He hurt you!”

  And why would you care, Mr. Trueborn?

  “Yes, he hurt me,” Alex agreed through gritted teeth. “So what? He doesn’t have a monopoly on that.”

  Darken’s eyes narrowed and Alex gritted her teeth harder to keep any more careless words from tumbling out of her big mouth. Words that would only embarrass her. Like, that his rejection had hurt her more than anything Tristan-dickhead-Grimes ever could have done to her.

  Tristan was an ass and couldn’t cope with the fact that she was a shaper. Fair enough. Darken, on the other hand, had shown that he had no problem dealing with the shaper. No, he had refused her as a woman, and that was somehow so much worse. And he really was the last person on earth she wanted to talk to about her shitty love life. She should have nipped this conversation in the bud.

  Alex exhaled and closed her eyes for a second. “Just drop it, okay? I really don’t want to talk about Tristan Grimes.”

  “And where does he live, this Tristan Grimes?” Darken’s deep voice was a soft purr.

  Alex bit her tongue. Shit. She probably shouldn’t have mentioned his name.

  “Why?” she scoffed. “Do you want to kill him?”

  Darken’s lips curved into a cold, cruel smile. A smile full of night and burning blades, and dark, vicious promises. Mother’s mercy and Jester’s grace! He really wanted to kill Tristan. Stupid males and their testosterone!

  Alex arched an eyebrow. “Sugar, don’t you think if I had wanted him dead, I could have managed very well on my own?”

  No reaction. Damn him!

  Alex sighed and rubbed her forehead, the spot right between her eyebrows. “Look. That was a long time ago. I’ve moved on. Tristan was a bad choice and he behaved like a complete ass but he never physically abused me or anything like that”—oh, he should have tried it—“he was just a sucker trying to boost his ego. I’m over it.”

  Met with Darken’s stony expression she felt the need to explain further. “He said things … about me, alright? About shapers in general. It made me feel like trash. And he told everybody at my workplace about my … disposition.”

  “They fired you,” Darken guessed quietly.

  Alex almost burst out laughing. As a civilized trueborn he would consider this the appropriate reaction, wouldn’t he? Bitterness flooded her as she remembered the shotgun pointed at her chest and the sharp clang as her foreman chambered a round, telling her to get the fuck off of the property, before he peppered the work hall with her degenerate shaper brains.

  She shrugged. “I quit.”

  Darken cast her a doubtful look.

  Alex shrugged again. “Staying wasn’t an option. So I left.”

  “And?”

  Was it really that obvious there was more to it? Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. He knew half of it anyway.

  “After that, I went to Gomorrha for the first time.” Alex kept her eyes at the trees ahead. “It wasn’t exactly like I had any other place to go and I’d heard that shapers were more accepted around there. It’s where I met the Duke. He found me in one of my weakest moments and he and his silky snake tongue knew all the right things to say. He told me, I mattered, blah-blah-blah. That I had a gift others couldn’t appreciate. But he did. Oh yes, he appreciated it very much. He told me I could be part of something bigger. And I was so desperate to belong somewhere that I completely fell for it. I was such an idiot!”

  Alex closed her eyes. Hello past, back to haunt me?

  “He recruited me for his team of ‘collectors.’ Most of us were shapers and we did the dirty work for him, collecting debts, and spreading threats and terror in the city’s underworld.”

  The slope slowly steepened as they moved.

  “I’m not very proud of the things I did during that time,” Alex said. “I wanted to feel powerful again, and for a while I did, but then I realized we were just scum. The scum at the top of the garbage dump, true, but in the end no better than the dirt below us.” The memories swamped her with guilt and she was glad that the red shadows of the trees were covering her burning cheeks. “I decided to leave, but Valentine Mercurio isn’t someone you just walk out on.” A bitter smile stretched her lips. “Besides, it was the only thing I had. I know this is a poor excuse, but it’s true. So I stayed and kept doing it, while I hated every moment.”

  Alex took a deep breath in, knowing she should stop, knowing that if she wanted Darken to ever think highly of her again, she should keep this remaining bit of darkness locked inside. But it seemed as if opening the floodgates had crushed all her mental dams and she couldn’t keep her shame from pouring out of her.

  “One night I was set on this kid. I don’t even remember his name. He’d stolen from one of Valentine’s gambling houses—a negligible amount really, but Valentine wanted to make an example of him, to keep anyone else from getting ideas. I was supposed to rough him up, and I did pretty well. When he was bleeding all over the floor, the kid called me scum. Lowlife. Mongrel-whore. He said I was the Duke’s spineless minion, no better than a trained dog. And he was right. Sweet Jester, he was right, and I hated him so much for it. I went crazy on him. Totally lost myself. I was about to kill him when Rachel appeared. She stopped me.”

  A shuddering breath entered her lungs as her memory served up the image of herself in that dark, foul alley, covered in dirt and gore, blood dripping from her face while her eyes glowed as black as her soul had become. It was like a snapshot of what she could be but never again wanted to be, and as such, it had stayed with her.

  Alex sighed. “Rachel pulled me out of this muck. She said that I could be better than that. That we cannot change what we did in the past but that we can always choose to be a better person each and every day. That it is our actions that define us, not our genes. People can only turn us into monsters if we let them. And she showed me by example. You see, Rachel has been shunned all her life for being what she is, she has faced hatred and humiliation but she doesn’t hold a grudge. She would have enough reason to and yet she decided that everybody has flaws, normal humans and shapers alike, and that we have to forgive people their flaws to cure our own. With Rachel’s help, I eventually found the guts to tell the Duke that I was out. He wasn’t happy—as I’m sure you can imagine.”

  “Oh, I think I can,” Darken said dryly.

  Alex sighed. “I don’t know where I would be without Rachel. She saved me. In more than one way.”

  And now it was all out in the open. Alex waited for condemnation or disgust to show on Darken’s face but all she saw—and felt—was thoughtfulness.

  “From what I’ve seen, your Rachel seems like a remarkable woman.”

  “She is.” This time Alex’s smile was genuine. “I owe her everything. Without her—”

  She stopped. Froze.

  Darken tensed immediately beside her, reaching into his jacket where his sword was hidden. His eyes glazed with a crimson sheen.

  “What is it?”

  Alex closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, sampling the scents around her. There was all the normal stuff that was to be expected in a mountain forest: moist earth covered by centuries of dead leaves; fragrant bark; the humid, moldy scent of moss creeping around tree trunks and cushioning the ground; wild garlic and herbs; the droppings of little animals and birds; along with something else … something …

  Letting her true skin rise close to the surface, Alex sent out her sensory threads in a wide web, probing their surroundings, her conscious moving along them, stretching farther and farther into
the distance.

  There! Recent scent marks on some trees that were doubtlessly human, marking an invisible yet clear boundary for anyone who was able to perceive it. Yum! Wild indeed.

  “I think we found them.”

  Darken peered around, his sharp eyes taking in the trees, the shrubs, and the ground that showed no visible sign of any kind of human or shaper-ish intrusion, and frowned. “Are you sure?”

  “Who’s the shaper out of the two of us again?” Alex asked sweetly.

  “Of course, milady.” Darken performed a deep, mocking bow, slipping into an affected royal accent. “I defer to your superior experience.”

  Prick!

  Alex raised her chin, choosing to ignore his teasing. “We’re invading their territory now. We better be prepared for anything.”

  They moved on quietly now, both of them tense and watchful. Alex wasn’t sure what kind of welcome to expect but she was pretty certain it wouldn’t be an overly warm one.

  Beside her Darken moved with graceful ease, soundless and soft-footed, a focused predator on the hunt. And, the Jester have mercy on her, he made it look sooo good, too. Alex could have spent the entire day just following him through the wilderness, watching his backside in those close-fitting denim pants.

  Oh, get a grip, sugar! She imagined slapping herself across the face. It helped. Sort of.

  Around them, the shadows were slowly starting to lengthen as the sun descended toward the horizon, a bright, oval flame in the sky. The maples thinned, opening into a steep green meadow dotted here and there with red trees like torches in a verdant sea. They kept to the edge of the tree line, covered by their blue-tinted shadows.

  A movement caught Alex’s eye. She stopped. Raised a hand.

  Without a sound, Darken melted into the trees.

  Damn him, the man could move!

  Very softly, Alex took a couple of steps forward. Probed. Nothing. It should have been here. She had seen something. Had felt something.

  Her eyes narrowed as she studied the vegetation around her, turning in a slow circle while her threads were humming with tension. Still nothing. Which only left—

  Leaves rustled.

  Alex jumped backward.

  Air whooshed and a shrill screech pierced the silence.

  Claws raked the ground, where Alex had been standing only a second before.

  There was a flash of bright red and green, then something hit Alex in the chest, causing her to stumble back in surprise. Her foot caught on a root and she landed rather gracelessly on her back. Her backpack pushed the air out of her lungs and something dug painfully into her left kidney.

  Before she could get up, a weight dropped on her middle, shoving her back to the ground.

  A face blotted out the sky, all pink gums and white fangs, and a mop of long, tangled ginger hair.

  Instinctively, Alex ripped her elbow up, smashing it into her attacker’s shoulder. The shaper drew back with a startled hiss.

  Bony knees clamped Alex’s sides, squeezing the rest of the air out of her. Sharp claws scratched her forearm, which she managed to raise just in time to shield her face. The talons failed to penetrate the reinforced leather guards that covered her arms, as well as her legs and chest underneath her clothing. She wouldn’t have gone into a wild shaper lair without any kind of protection—she wasn’t mental—and Rachel’s house was full of interesting little things from “the old days,” as she called them. Alex made a mental note to ask her about them, if she somehow managed to survive this trip.

  The claws came back for more, aiming for her unprotected face.

  A lean blade kissed the shaper’s neck. The claws froze two inches from Alex’s nose.

  Silent as a ghost, Darken peeled out of the shadows, a serene smile stretching his lips, his dark eyes two unforgiving blood-red pools. Woohoo! Her personal knight in fiery armor.

  Alex’s heart was galloping in a wild frenzy as she gulped air back into her lungs.

  Taking a good look at her attacker, she realized it was only a girl, sixteen at the most. Figured, a guy would probably have at least broken a rib. Which didn’t mean she’d wouldn’t be sore after this.

  The kid was skinny to the point of starvation, squalid, and scratched. Either the pack was facing lean times or she was very low on the food chain. Her shaggy, reddish hair hadn’t seen a comb in a while and, judging by her ripe smell, showering wasn’t taken too seriously, either.

  More beast than human girl.

  The rags she wore on her emaciated body were an assortment of clothing items pulled over each other that would have made Josy tear out her hair: a pair of denim shorts, a mottled green top under a black t-shirt, both so ripped up they were more holes than fabric; a leather clasp on her left arm; a studded bracelet on her right; and, around her neck, a very cheap-looking necklace with plastic beads that looked as if it came from a halfborn gumball machine. The tips of her toes stuck out of a pair of old laced boots.

  Like a magpie, Alex thought. She put on whatever struck her fancy. A psychotic, lethal magpie.

  Green eyes with slit pupils that were typical for a snake regarded them with open hostility.

  “Get up,” Darken crooned. “Slowly.”

  The girl let out a sound that was somewhere between a wail and a hiss but complied when the razor-sharp edge of Darken’s blade pressed against her skin and a thin line of red appeared.

  Alex rolled into a crouch and massaged her bruised ribcage, tenderly probing the bones. Ugh, one or two of them might actually have cracked.

  Something snapped in the trees to their left. Automatically, she and Darken turned that way. A sleepy raccoon blinked its beady eyes at them.

  The shaper girl snatched the opportunity and did what every sensible prey would do when caught between two superior predators: she bolted into the trees.

  Shit! Spitting a curse, Alex dashed after her.

  “Wait!” she called. But she could have saved her breath for all the effect it had.

  The kid became a blur between the red trees. Ignoring her ribs, Alex gave chase, following flashes of orange hair and human clothing.

  True, the girl knew her way around, that was her advantage, but she was clearly underfed. Alex, on the other hand, was rested, well-fed, and almost back to her old strength. It wasn’t a fair race from the start.

  Alex’s feet barely touched the ground as she flew through the scarlet canopy, fingers skimming bark and leaves, eyes fixed on her elusive target. The wind tugged at her hair, smelling of freedom and the adrenaline of the chase.

  The girl vanished for a second and reappeared between two scarred old maples, running at full speed. Crouching down, Alex leaped like an uncoiled spring and crashed into the girl’s back. The kid went down with a cry. Snarling and clawing, they rolled over the ground, tossing up dirt and leaves.

  Without the element of surprise, the scrawny kid had no chance against Alex’s superior strength. Within thirty seconds she had wrestled the girl onto her belly, one arm pinned in a painful lock behind her back.

  The girl hissed and squirmed, trying to wriggle out of the lock.

  “Stop struggling, damn you!” Alex growled, upping the pressure on her arm. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

  The girl let out some gibberish in between hissed threats and spitting noises. No coherent human speech in case of emotional distress—this kid definitely spent the majority of her time in her true skin.

  Finally exhausted, the girl stopped her futile efforts to break free.

  Alex reduced the pressure a little.

  “Look, sugar, all I want to do is talk to you, alright?” No proper reaction. “If I let go, will you run again?”

  The girl hesitated, then stiffly shook her head.

  A sensible human reaction. Why, we’re making progress!

  “Alright.” Alex exhaled slowly. “Take it easy. I’ll let go now.”

  The moment Alex let go of her arm and moved back, the girl sprang up and dashed away.

&nb
sp; Alex sighed. Having expected nothing less, she dug her heels firmly into the ground, bent her knees and braced herself. After about twenty feet, the climbing rope that was secured to Alex’s belt and whose carabiner ending she’d attached to the girl’s belt loop while holding her down, snapped taut. With a stifled gasp, the girl was yanked back and landed hard on her bony ass. Alex materialized at her side and easily pinned her to the ground once more, looking down at her dirt-smeared face.

  The kid howled and bit at the air with elongated white fangs, her orange hair puffed out.

  Losing her patience, Alex flashed her own true eyes and snarled, issuing a mature challenge.

  The thin body underneath her went slack. With a slightly resentful sigh, the kid bent her head back and offered her throat to Alex. A gesture of complete submission, acknowledging her as dominant.

  Finally! Thank the Great Mother.

  At that moment, Darken stepped out from behind the trees. Quick—for a normal human. He wordlessly joined Alex’s side.

  Alex leaned forward but made sure to keep out of the range of the girl’s teeth, speaking slowly and clearly: “Sugar, we really just want to talk. So, what’s the deal? Do we have to tie you up like a wild beast or do you think we can have a civilized conversation like human beings?” What’s it gonna be, hm?

  The look the kid gave them with those bright green eyes was full of accusation. But after a moment, the girl’s true skin retreated, leaving her eyes a more common color, somewhere between brown and green.

  “Talk.” Her voice sounded rusty as if she wasn’t using it on a regular basis.

  Alex let go, and this time the kid sat back slowly and wrapped her arms around her knobby knees, indicating she wasn’t going to run again. So far so good.